Rescue and salvage devices for submersible vessels



Feb. 6, 1968 BERGER 3,367,297

RESCUE AND SALVAGE DEVICES FOR SUBMERSIBLE VESSELS Filed Aug. 19, 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. fie Mae J 552 52 Feb. 6, 1968 A. J. BERGER 3,367,297

RESCUE AND SALVAGE DEVICES FOR SUBMERSIBLE VESSELS Filed Aug. 19, 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet W [117% Zii/I'L INVENTOR. fl/e mule J 495mm Feb. 6, 1968 A. J. BERGER 1 3,367,297

RESCUE AND SALVAGE DEVICES FOR SUBMERSIBLE VESSELS Filed Aug. 19, 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR. fl/a THU/a 1f. B52652 A AA A. J. BERGER Feb. 6, 1968 RESCUE AND SALVAGE DEVICES FOR SUBMERSIBLE VESSELS 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Aug. 19, 1966 INVENTOR. fl/QW/U/Q J BEFQ'EQ BY M 3 mm ill/1. m, @Q-M AW Nam/5%? 3,367,297 RESCUE ANT? SALVAGE DEVICES HER tSUBit ieRSEELE VESETELS Arthur 5. Berger, 123 N. Highiand Place, Croton @n Hudson, N31. H3520 Fired 19, I966, N 7 2,286 3 Claims. (63. lid-16.7)

AETJRACT GK THE BECLGSURE An apparatus for raisng a submersible vessel having a pair of streamlined hull-mounted fairings, one forward and one aft, each provided with a central groove and a pair of releasable buoys. The hull also has afiixed thereto a pair of lifting eyes each disposed in a well having therein said buoys. Each buoy carries therein a pair of payout reels mounted on a single shaft on which is wound a unitary loop of cable that passes through the lifting eye. Further, the fairing includes spaced apart guide loops which are releasably attached to the hull. When the buoys are released a surface vessel can pass lifting cables through the lifting-eyes or around the submersible and exert a lifting force thereon to raise the submersible.

The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States of America for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalties thereon or therefor.

This invention relates to the rescue and salvage apparatus and methods for use with submersible vessels. More specifically it entails buoy lines and adaptation of the submersible hull to facilitate the raising thereof from great depths.

Current techniques employed in the rescue of a ships crew from a disabled submarine require the use of pressure locks aboard the vessel and some form of breathing apparatus for personnel rising therefrom. Due to the extreme pressures encountered at normal operating depths, this method is severely limited and requires that certain machinery aboard the disabled craft be operative. In order to overcome this severe drawback several approaches have been suggested. One of these is to provide or employ another submersible which will attach itself to the stricken vessel and permit the transfer of the crew thereto. This, however, has not, as yet, proceeded beyond the planning stage due in part to the difficult technical problems involved.

The most feasible approach is to actually lift the disabled vessel to the surface. This however has been limited depthwise in that it requires direct physical contact therewith by either a diver or some other submersible vessel.

Other contemplated salvage means necessitate the developrnent and structural attachment of lifting pads by the salvage vessel and here again direct physical contact is required thereby limiting the depth and increasing the complexity of the entire operation.

Although most submarines are provided the marker buoys which include both passive and active signalling means for location of the disabled submersible, they are not adapted to serve the function of salvage and rescue.

in view of the foregoing, it is an object of this invention to provide an inexpensive, simple, and direct coordinated technique and apparatus for the salvage and lifting of a submersible from great depths.

Another object is to provide a buoy system wherein a lifting cable may be subsequently affixed to the submarine by the rescue vessel without the aid of a diver or direct physical contact.

States Patent 3,357,297 Patented Feb. 6, 1968 ICC Still another object is to provide the outer hull of the submersible with a means for balanced and secure attachment of a lifting cable thereto.

A still further object is to provide a combined double cable buoy and a balanced means for securing a lifting cable to a submersible.

Other objects and advantages will appear from the following description of an example of the invention, and the novel features will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a buoy with a portion of the ships hull broken away, showing a preferred embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is another embodiment of the buoy arrangement;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a submersible having affixed thereto combination of buoys and cable retaining means;

FIG. 4 is a cross-section view taken approximately along the line 4-4 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a cross-section view taken approximately along the line 55 of FIG. 3;

P16. 6 is a cross-section view taken approximately along the line 66 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a rescue vessel downhauling a lifting cable and other equipment to the submersible; and

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of two rescue ships lifting a submersible employing apparatus embodying this invention. v

Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

In the embodiment of the invention as illustrated in FIG. 1, a marker buoy 10 is provided to pay out a double line as it rises to the surface from a submerged vessel. The buoy, as is well known is provided with an upper water-tight, air-filled chamber 10a to supply the necessary buoyancy. The buoy, as shown, houses a pair of reels or drums I1 and 12 supported so as to rotate together about a central shaft (not shown). The buoy 16 is disposed in a well 13 formed by the hull 14 of the submarine in order to maintain the streamlined contour of the vessel. A lifting eye 15 secured to the ships hull is located at the bottom 16 of the well 13. Since the bottom of the buoy 10 is open, the line 17, half of which is wound on reel 11, and the other half on reel 12, has a center loop 18 therebetween which passes through and about the lifting eye 15. In general, the buoy is releasably secured to the hull and, in an emergency, or where necessary, is released either automatically or manually from inside the submarine.

The arrangement of FIG. 2 is quite similar to the embodiment of FIG. 1 with the exception of the placement of the lifting eye 19, which is disposed and secured to the hull 14 outside the well. This eliminates the necessity of a relatively deep well and provides easier access. The central loop of line 26 is connected to the eye 19 and is loosely confined therebetween in a recessed passageway 21 in the hull 14. The passageway is covered with either a metal or plastic cover 22 so as to maintain the hull integrity without any unnecessary discontinuities. The cover is merely secured therein by a force fit and the upward motion of the buoy acting on the line dislodges the cover 22..

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 3, the forward buoy 23 and the aft buoy 2-4 are shown rising to the surface from their respective wells 25 and 26. The line loop 27 between the payout drums of each buoy circumscribes the hull 28a of the submersible 28 and is retained in a groove or the space 29 between a pair of encircling fairings 30. This arrangement is best illustrated in FIG. 5. The fairing 30 is afiixed to the hull by any suitable means, as for example, by cementing it thereto and is contoured to minimize turbulence along the hull surface. Disposed over and spaced from the fairing are a plurality of guide loops 31. These loops are positioned around the hull and have their ends 32 releasably secured to the hull so that under the action of a cable force they will be torn off. This is necessary so that, as shown, those guides near the wells will not hinder the rising payout cable and the subsequent lifting cable Will only contact one-half of the peripheral surface of the submersible where its lifting force is to be applied.

FIG. 6 illustrates the lifting cable 33 disposed and confined within the guide 31. The fairing has been deleted for clarity since it is relatively small in size as compared with the heavy large diameter lifting cable which must be able to exert tremendous lifting forces.

The forward and aft buoys are released by the submersible and upon rising to the surface are picked up by the servicing or rescue vessel 34, as shown in FIG. 7. The payout cables are attached to a pair of double winches 35 and 36 so as to form a continuous loop of cable. A lifting cable 33 is aflixed to the payout cable 27 as at 37 and is payed out from winch 38 while winch 35 draws the payout buoy cable about the submersible 28. Various equipment and apparatus can be afiixed to the forward payout cable and lowered therewith to the submersible. In the illustration a remotely operated television camera 39 is being lowered to observe the outer structure and environment of the submersible.

Where the lifting required to raise the submerged vessel necessitates the use of more than one surface vessel as in FIG. 8, the payout buoy cable guides the lifting cable about the submersible and one end of each lifting cable is passed about or payed out from one winch on each surface ship. Here forward lifting cable 40 after passing about the lower half of submersible 28, has its ends Wound on winch 41 of surface ship 42 and winch 43 of ship 44 while similarly the aft cable 45 is aflixed to the rear lifting winches of these ships. As is Well known, the operation of all the winches is coordinated so as to provide a balanced lifting force to the submersible 28 and thus raise it to the surface in a safe and steady manner.

Summarizing, the submersible is provided with marker buoys, equipped to pay out a double line as they rise to the surface. At the submarine, these two lines are continuous and loop through a suitably located lifting eye which is structurally tied in with the vessels hull. If the buoy is contained within a well, for streamlining purposes, then ideally the lifting eye is located at the bottom of the well. It may, however, be located at any distance from the buoy location provided the loop of the buoys double line is led to the eye and passed through it. Operation is as follows: In case of disablement, the submersible vehicle either manually or automatically releases its marker buoy or buoys, unreeling the double line. When the buoy is located by a rescue vessel, it is hauled on board and the lines are detached from the buoy. To one of the two lines a heavier line is attached. The other line then becomes a hauling line by means of which the heavier line can be pulled down to the disabled submersible, pass through the eye, and back up to the rescue vessel. The second, heavier line can next be attached to and followed by a still heavier line, and so on, until a hawser or cable of the desired size and lifting strength has been passed down through the lifting eye and back to the rescue vessel. With heavy hauling lines attached to the submersible vehicle, rescue and/ or salvage operations may proceed by conventional, currently available means, using heavy lift winches, pontoons and the like.

It should be noted that the double buoy-line rescue means is immediately usable with any of the small experimental submersible vehicles currently in operation or being built or planned. Additionally, the double buoy-line system can be applied immediately even to rescue a combat or Polaris submarine provided the conditions of disablement are such that it has not lost all its buoyancy, and the load remaining to be lifted is within the capability of available salvage equipment.

Another aspect of the double buoy-line is that it can be used to haul down additional lines to the disabled submersible to serve other purposes. A line could be used to haul down television cameras for assessing the situation and to assist in rescue and/or salvage operations. Equipment to communicate with the disabled vessel can be hauled down so that it can clamp itself to the hull by suitable means, such as magnets. Extra intermediate weight lines can be hauled down and back to the rescue vessel to serve as standby lines for emergency use if the lifting line parts.

The advantage of the double buoy-line concept is that it makes possible the attachment of heavy lifting lines and communication lines to a disabled submarine or submersible vehicle from the surface, without necessitating making direct contact with the submarine or submersible by divers or by a rescue submarine. With the necessity for direct contact removed, rescue and/or salvage operations can be performed at any depth whatsoever, subject only to the condition that marker buoys are available and are released and located.

Accordingly, this invention provides means for removing current depth limitations to rescue and/or salvage operation while requiring modifications to submersible vehicles and submarines comprising:

(a) Providing suitably located lifting eyes attached to the structure of the submersible vehicles or submarines.

(b) Equipping marker buoys with double lines which loop through the lifting eyes.

With respect to the provision that the loop of the double buoy-line be poured through a suitable lifting eye, in the case of a submersible vehicle or a submarine that is not provided with lifting eyes, or the lifting eyes are not strong enough, the loop of the double buoy-line can be passed completely around the hull of the submarine, so that when, in case of disablement, the buoy line has served its purpose of hauling a lifting line down and back to the surface, the lifting line encircles the submarine in sling fashion. For streamlining under normal conditions, the encircling buoy-line loop can lie in a suitable shaped groove molded into a fairing strip that encircles the submarines hull.

It will be understood that various changes in the details, materials, and arrangements of parts (and steps), which have been herein described and illustrated in order to explain the nature of the invention, may be made by those skilled in the art within the principle and scope of the invention as expressed in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In combination with a submersible vessel having a hull that is generally circular in cross-section, apparatus for raising the same from below the surface of the water, said apparatus comprising:

a flotation buoy releasably held by said submersible,

said hull of said submersible being provided with a well for releasably confining said buoy therein,

a payout guide cable in the form of an extending central loop, both ends of said loop being carried by said buoy,

guide means including a streamlined elastomeric fairing attached to and vertically encircling said submersible and having a central groove lengthwise thereof,

said cable extending loop being disposed in said groove,

whereby said buoy, when released, will rise to the surface and another vessel can attach to said guide cable a lifting cable, pass said lifting cable along said fairing and in said groove and thereby exerting References Cited a lifting force on said submersible. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1 further includ- UNITED STATES PATENTS ing 1,142,768 6/ 1915 Barr-aja-FrauenFelder 114-51 a plurality of spaced apart guide loops releasably af- 5 1 334 412 7/1921 Stoltz 11 fixed to said hull and extending over said fairing. 1545417 u 1 5 3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said I O 1 4- 1 buoy further includes a pair of payout reels conjointly MILTON BUCHLER Primar Exrminer mounted on one shaft and having opposite ends of said y buoy cable Wound thereon. 10 T. M. BLIX, Assistant Examiner. 

